Hello everybody!

Hi there to everybody! I have just registered on this site and would love to here from people who have gone through similar experiences to myself! I am 29 years old and have two gorgeous littles ones. Lily, who was three end of September and Joseph who was born on 8th January this year.

I suffered with pre eclampsia with Lily first time round but thank God she was born only two days off her due date and was a very healthy 6 pounds 15 ounces! I was discharged after having Lily after four days as my blood pressure took a while to go down. And indeed it took a while for it to return to normal once I returned home.

After my experience with pre eclampsia the first time round I was in no hurry to have a baby straight away that's for sure! Then in the early months of last year (2010) we decided on trying for a second baby and fell pregnant straight away. All was well in the pregnancy and my blood pressure was great thank God. Although my weight had dropped below 8 stone (I am five foot five) and I felt constantly sick but the doctor put me on anti sickness tablets which did help no end. I had a scan at 23 weeks however due to me suffering with the pre eclampsia with Lily and this scan showed notching on the blood vessels to my placenta - an early indication that I may get pre eclampsia this time round.. the consultant told me that although this may be the case, it wasn't a certainty and that they would keep a close eye on me (more regular scans etc..). I was placed on a low dose of aspirin which can be given to pregnant ladies who may well fall into the bracket of experiencing pre eclampsia again. I was very nervous and upset at this stage, worrying if I got it again and how bad it may be this time round. Everything though thank God was great until 31 weeks when I went for a routine midwife appointment and it was discovered that my blood pressure had risen. I was admitted to the DAU of the local hospital that same day and was monitored and sent home as the blood pressure went back to normal. To cut a long story short I was then re-admitted on the Sunday and kept in for two days as the blood pressure stablised but was still elevated and it was then that I was place on labetalol, twice a day..200mg. I was discharged thankfully on the Tuesday after steroid injections and the worry of it not going down at this time. .. The midwives came regularly to check my bp and it was all fine on the tablets and thank God we enjoyed a lovely family Christmas together.

At 36 weeks I had another scan and consultant appointment. All the week prior to the appointment and scan on the Friday I just had the feeling that something wasn't quite right...severe anxiety and one of my ankles had swollen greatly over the week. True enough upon seeing the nurses and having my blood pressure checked it was noted that the blood pressure was through the roof even on the labetalol twice daily. They checked it again and decided I needed to go to the delivery suite straight away, in a wheelchair!! ;-( I was very scared at this point.. my husband was at work and my Dad and daughter Lily were waiting in the waiting room for me. The lovely consultant went through to them and explained to my Dad the situation .. it was all scary and rather rushed but the worst thing was to see Lily's face bless her when I was wheeled out to the waiting room ;-( From then onwards I was monitored with my blood pressure and it didn't go down so that decision was made to induce me at 2pm on the Saturday afternoon... I was diagnosed with severe pre eclampsia...Thank God everything progressed fairly well from there onwards.. I was induced three times and on the third occasion everything went very quickly and our gorgeous boy Joseph William was born at 36 weeks plus one day weighing 6 pounds one ounce and letting out a big scream at 6.36am on the Saturday morning. Thank God the labour was good but the drips and having to have magnesium sulphate was the worse ever experience of my life.. it burnt my entire body and I was given no warning of how bad it was. I was just grateful to hold Joseph in my arms afterwards but was traumatized by the whole experience of trying to get the bp down/preventing the fits but placing me on the mag sulphate etc... Afterwards was all rather traumatic as my blood pressure failed to normalise (and one stage was 200/130) and went up a lot in the period of two days after having Joseph. I was on the delivery suite for two nights and had to be given labetalol intranvensly. Thank God I was discharged from delivery on the Monday morning and was on the maternity ward till the Wednesday night as my blood pressure had come down enough to then be discharged. However after packing my bags and getting ready to leave the midwife came in to say my liver function blood test had come back so high compared to the previous results the doctors could not believe the result! SO, we had to wait another two hours to get them to double check the result again and to then get back to us as to a plan of action. Thank God and to cut a long story short again I was discharged that evening and told to make an appointment at the doctors for the following Monday to have another blood test to check whether the result had come down. The doctors concluded it was almost certainly as a result of having pre eclampsia that the LFT came back higher but they wanted to make doubly sure it wasn't anything more sinister. So, I came home on the Wednesday and the following few days had the midwifes coming in to check my bp etc... thank God it remained good on the tablets and to this day I am still on them, seven weeks after having Joseph and praying I will be off them soon. Thank God following a repeat blood test on the Monday the LFT then came back much better!! PHEW!! ;-)

So this is my story and I just hope to make friends and be an encouragement to those on this site too who have gone through a similar situation. I had found it particularly hard and traumatic dealing with getting it again and suffering with it more severely. I have periods of feeling angry with myself and blaming myself for putting myself and Joseph in danger even though I know there was nothing I could have done to prevent it happening.. I was also wondering, were other people discharged on meds and how long were you on them for? Thank you SO much.. I am just so thankful there are other people going through similar situations.. makes them all seem not so challenging when you can chat to those who have gone through it also ;-)

Hi Diana,

Welcome to the site, I am glad that you found us.

I can really appreciate your memory of the magnesium sulphate - it was a horrible experience for me too.

Pre -eclampsia steals so many things from what should be a lovely pregnancy there to enjoy so I am not suprised to hear of your anxiety when you were pregnant with Joseph.

I think one thing us mums are not so good at remembering is that in a 'normal' pregancy it takes about 9 months for our bodies to recover from pregnany, when PE sneaks in its then not so suprising that it takes us longer to recover...and the emotional scars take the longest heal.

Im sure your story will be familiar to many of the ladies here and offer encouragement to others that healthy babies can be born following a recurrance of PE.

Best Wishes
Liz

Hi

I too suffered PE in both my pregnancies and I just couldn't believe I got it again after being told how unlikely it would be to get it twice! I felt alot of anger and sadness as for me I wonder and probably always will whether if I had of been on aspirin and been under the care of a specialist in PE whether my daughter would have been born much later than at 27 wks. I've come to terms with what has happened although I am going to see one of the consultant obstetricans to go through my notes and discuss if aspirin should / could have been given. As for my blood pressure it still isn't normal and I delivered in June last year - so I'm still on medication but I'm hoping that won't be forever.

Feel free to PM xxx

Hi, I'm new here too, and can understand what you mean about the magnesium. It burns and made me violently sick every time they pushed through a large dose quickly (in my case after each seizure.)
My BP never went what most people would call high, but it was for me (mine's normally in my boots it's so low.)
It's never gone back to what it was, stayed at most people call normall, but my GP wants to check it every 6m, along with a cholestrol test.
Apparently we are now more at risk of long term BP and heart problems after having PE, so it would make sense to have a bi-anual check with your doc as mine's recommended.
It's still early days for you, it will get better, although I honestly felt like I'd been hit by a train for the first few months. I was just in a blur, mind and body and emotions not working properly.